US broadband is depressing

I think I was too spoiled when I lived in Japan. I started with ISDN line at 128kps, back when most people in the US were at 32K. Next I moved to DSL at 2Mbps. After that, we switched to Cable at 20Mbps. One year before I left Japan we were on fiber to the home at 100Mbps. On average, you can get 20Mps DSL for under $30 in Japan.

I'm currently using Comcast Triple play bundle. Voice+Cable+Internet. My speed is about 10Mbps. That costs about $110 a month. I plan to kill the voice, as like many people, who are simply using their mobile phone. I'd like to downgrade to a basic cable lineup (again like many people are doing these days to ave). But I don't know what to do about internet connection. Cable Co's internet only service is outrageous. So that leaves ATT. They start at $19 for 768K. Then $30ish for 1.5Mbps. It's like going back to 2003!!! Ouch!

I would expect that part of the issue is that Japan is much more densely populated and that probably helps keep the infrastructure price down, but probably not by that much. I'd agree that it's pretty ridiculous.

Comcast likes to use the internet as an excuse to sell you cable TV as well, even if you don't care to watch TV. It's more expensive for me to get just internet than internet + basic cable.

No, America IS behind, because with a laizze faire policy towards business that has been dominant in the past 30 years, corporations can do what ever they want.
So, they are artificially slow to get new tech out, holding on to the old stuff while they can make money on it.
Then charge 100K for the outdated "new" tech.

If you think US broadband is depressing, you should try UK broadband. Most places are hard pushed to get > 2mb broadband and when you do get cable up to 25mb you can only get it on ISPs that throttle bandwidth to dialup speed at peek hours.

We don't even have the excuse of having to lay cable over an entire continent.

Wish I could help, but I'm going to be lazy and toss in my own complaint instead: Last month, my cable bill (just for internet - not cable tv, phone, or any of that) jumped from $26 to $62. Yeah. Charter disgusts me.